A number of prior art inventions have been developed, for storing and dispensing elongated slender rod objects such as toothpicks. Many of such devices can be found at the cashier's counter of restaurants. One of such devices is embodied and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,004,805 to D'Agostino. The patentee discloses a toothpick dispenser having a receiving chute 43 which terminates in an abutment 46, the chute and abutment have a cut away 45 whereby the toothpick may easily be removed.
Usually, the dispensers for elongated slender rod objects provide for a magazine type reservoir which terminates in a bottom having sloping walls. The sloping walls ends about a cylinder parallel to the supply of rods. The cylinder will have one or more elongated traps which are elongated grooves in the cylinder adapted and constructed to accommodate a rod which falls thereinto when the trap is presented at or near the bottom of the stockpiled rods. The cylinder is rotated to a position whereby the trap is inverted over a chute and the rod falls therefrom, rolls down the chute to a discharge and manual pick up position. Exemplary of such devices can be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 1,212,357 to Jackson and U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,470 to Seegar et al.
A much more recent device of such a nature can be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,522 to Laidlow who shows a dispenser for elongated slender rod articles wherein a supply of slender rod articles are housed in a transparent cartridge which is then inverted to be positioned on a dispenser. Sloping walls direct the slender rod articles to an apex in which a rotatable cylinder is located. The cylinder has thereon oppositely disposed trap chambers for picking up a rod article, then carrying into a position for gravity discharge therefrom.